Hamstergeddon
"Hamstergeddon" is the 2nd segment in the 9th episode of the first season of Invader Zim. It first premiered on August 17, 2001, on Nickelodeon. Plot Summary While at Skool one day, Ms. Bitters tells the class that they need a new pet hamster, named Peepi, due to the orders of the Skool's board of directors. When the hamster arrives, all of the children love it, attracted by its 'cuteness'. Zim decides to exploit this fact, since the hamster could help make the humans too weak to resist him. Zim plants an Irken device on Peepi that will makes it grow larger while under Zim's control, but instead the hamster grows rampant and breaks free. Zim doesn't worry about this at first, and just lets it go on a psychotic rampage of destruction. However, once Zim's house ends up in the path of Peepi's destruction, Zim decides that the hamster must be stopped. After failing to stop Peepi on his own, Zim enlists the help of Dib and formulates a new plan. Zim gets Peepi to follow his Voot to a Ferris wheel with rockets on it to blast Peepi into space. Unfortunately, the military's meddling causes this plan to fail. Dib tries to prevent the military from interfering again, but they put him in a crazy bucket. As a last resort, Zim attaches rockets to Peepi himself and blasts the hamster back into space. Unbeknownst to everybody, Peepi comes crashing back to Earth and explodes. Facts of Doom Cultural References *At one point, Zim and GIR are on the couch sucking/licking on candysticks, which is a reference to Fun Dip. *According to the commentary, the screenshots in which Ultra-Peepi charges after the giant hot dog are an allusion to the anime[[wikipedia:Neon Genesis Evangelion| Evangelion]]. *When Zim has his fantasy of Peepi domination, he says, "Kneel before ZIM!!!" which is a homage to General Zod of Superman fame. *The concept of a giant monster rampaging through a city was the plot for most of the Godzilla movies. The spikes on Ultra Peepi's back even resembles the spikes on Godzilla. **The kid being sad that Ultra-Peepi was launched into space and Zim reassuring him that Ultra-Peepi would "live on in the stars" is a reference to the 1965 kaiju film, Gamera, which ends with the titular giant monster being lured to a rocket and sent to Mars, with a child happy that Gamera could live on. *At one point in the episode, the soundtrack switches to a heavy funk beat, in which a deep voice says "Ultra-Peepi", which is a parody of the theme from the movie Shaft. The animators unintentionally made it look like Peepi was walking to the beat of this beat, so they added the track to make it funnier. Trivia *According to Jhonen Vasquez, there are around seventy deaths in this episode, as a woman is seen killed by a bus falling on her and Peepi steps on Frank Connif. Although Frank makes later cameos in the series. *At Nickelodeon's request, they had to show that no actual deaths happened in this episode, which is why the disclaimer was added in the end. *Penny had black hair at the beginning of this episode. *When the general asks Dib how to get rid of Peepi, Dib says "I...Don't...Know", similar to the way GIR said in when he first met Zim in "The Nightmare Begins". *This is the second time since "Planet Jackers" that Zim helped save the City and by extension the Earth, the third is in "Lice" the fourth was in "Tak: The Hideous New Girl", the fifth would have been in "Invader Poonchy", the sixth would have been in "Squishy: Hugger of Worlds", and the seventh and ultimate time would have been "Invader Dib". *At the very beginning of this episode, when the camera is zooming onto the Skool, it's a very abnormally bright red compared to any other time it is seen. Changes & Cuts *Peepi's original name was Mr. Boodles, according to the commentary on the DVD. Things You Might Have Missed *A Bloody GIR can be seen on the upper left corner when Zim and GIR are eating Candy Sticks. *After Ms. Bitters opens the hamster security, you will see three kids standing there frightened. Look at the pale kid: he only has three fingers while all of the other kids have four. *Rikki Simons, voice actor of GIR, can be seen running from Peepi at one point. Inconsistencies and Animation Errors *When Zim first sees Ultra-Peepi approaching his house, he's wearing the wig from his human disguise. However, in every other scene in that sequence, he's not wearing any disguise at all. *When the hamster cage is first seen, the timer says 0:27 and just seconds later it says 1:03. *In the scene where Ultra-Peepi is approaching Zim's base, Zim steps outside. The scene changes and shows Ultra-Peepi, though when it returns to Zim, he has his disguise on, despite the fact that he wasn't wearing it just seconds earlier. *When Zim and Gir are sucking on candy sticks, they are each holding one. However, when Zim says "What is that noise?" there are 3; Zim and Gir are holding one each, and there is one in a pouch. See also *Hamstergeddon (Transcript) *Hamstergeddon/Screenshots References *http://www.tv.com/invader-zim/hamstergeddon/episode/178262/summary.html es:Hammstergeddon Category:Season 1 Category:Screenshots Category:Episodes